Death metal, Schubert, nudity: opera about Ukraine dam destruction premieres in Kyiv

The opera is far from a literal depiction of the cataclysmic events of summer last year. Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

Taking a casual glance at the elegant Kyivans queueing outside the lemon-yellow neoclassical theatre perched above Independence Square, an onlooker would have few hints that there was a war on.

But the opera that premiered at the International Centre of Culture and Arts last week is inextricably bound up with the deadly events of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.